"Voter Fraud=Political Bait-and-Switch"
Lorraine C. Minnite writes on Democracy Dispatches: From the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal, to pundits like Michelle Malkin, the vast rightwing political blogosphere, and the Republican Policy Committee of the U.S. Senate, voter fraud is being trumpeted as a dire threat to American democracy. The proffered antidote: restore integrity to our electoral system through "reform" by way of stricter voter identification requirements at the polls.
Before the 2004 election, Malkin warned that, "Voter fraud is breaking out all over." To back up her claim, she followed the standard formula used by voter fraud scaremongers--she rattled off on-going "investigations;" she vilified the "motor voter" law, citing no evidence connecting the law to fraud; she bemoaned a lack of "swift, stiff punishment" for violators and blamed for the alleged fraud the "illegal alien lobby and ethnic grievance groups" or anyone else who opposed the new voter ID movement. ...
The fact is there is no data supporting the argument that voter fraud of the kind conjured by the Right is imperiling American democracy. None. -- Democracy Dispatches